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Mon, Jun 24, 2024
The 12-film program launches with a June 27 kickoff party at Seventh Son Brewing
July 6–August 15, the Wexner Center for the Arts, the multidisciplinary contemporary arts center at The Ohio State University, will present its annual summer film series. This year’s program, Musicals! Summer World Tour, focuses on different approaches to the musical genre from across the globe.
A genre with roots going back to the earliest days of sound film, musicals have seen a resurgence in recent years through the popularity of movies such as Mean Girls and the crossover success of the Bollywood musical RRR via Netflix. With Musicals! Summer World Tour, the center is excited to share with audiences a wide range of examples of how filmmakers from different cultures have taken on the genre.
“It really expands the idea of what a musical can be,” Film/Video Curator Chris Stults notes of the series, adding, “The films were picked to be seen in a theater, whether they’re spectacles that really sing on a big screen or movies that will play well with an audience. And most of these are films that frankly, you’re not going to see anywhere else in the country, let alone Columbus.”
The series begins in France with Jacques Demy’s beloved, bittersweet 1964 film The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. From there, the “tour” stops at destinations including Brazil (Black Orpheus), Japan (Wild Zero), Mexico (The Ship of Monsters), and Rwanda (Neptune Frost).
Bollywood will also be represented with the 2007 musical Om Shanti Om, one of several series titles to be presented in 35mm. Select films will be introduced by special guests who’ll inform their respective screenings with additional context.
As a preview for the series, Seventh Son Brewing will host a kickoff party on Thursday, June 27. And during the run of Musicals! Summer World Tour, Heirloom Café will be open before Thursday and Friday screenings for purchasing fresh popcorn, beer, wine, and soft drinks.
In addition to single tickets for the films, all-access series passes are available. The pass comes with a passport booklet for patrons to track their attendance and earn prizes from the Wex and Seventh Son such as stickers, T-shirts, and Wex memberships. Passes and single tickets can be purchased via the Musicals! series page at wexarts.org.
Umbrellas of Cherbourg, courtesy of Janus Films
Musicals! Summer World Tour Kickoff Party Thu June 27 | 5 PM Seventh Son Brewing.
Enjoy a casual gathering to launch the film series. Film/Video curators will be on hand to talk about what’s ahead, and a portion of all beer and Kitty Paw alcoholic seltzer sales for the day will be donated to the Wex to support its programming—just mention the Wex when ordering.
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (Jacques Demy, 1964, France) Sat July 6 | 7 PM Introduced by Chris Feil, cohost of This Had Oscar Buzz
The international classic The Umbrellas of Cherbourg follows the highs and lows of love after a young girl (Catherine Deneuve, in a starmaking role) falls for a gas station mechanic—only to have their romance interrupted by war. Greta Gerwig has cited the film as one of Barbie’s main influences, and with its lush primary colors and dazzling choreography, it’s easy to see why. In French with English subtitles. (92 mins., DCP)
The screening will be preceded by a 6 PM reception in Heirloom Café celebrating the start of the summer film series.
Siméon (Euzhan Palcy, 1992, Martinique) Thu July 11 | 7 PM
This joyful West Indian musical is designed to lift your spirits and have you dancing in the aisles! Its magical tale of a teacher who sets out to put her island’s sound on the world music map is brought to life by a cast made up almost entirely of musicians—most notably, the prolific French Caribbean band Kassav’. The new 4K restoration has only played in the US a handful of times, so this screening offers a rare opportunity to see one of Palcy’s best at its finest. In French with English subtitles. (115 mins., 4K DCP)
Black Orpheus (Marcel Camus, 1959, Brazil) Sat July 13 | 7 PM Introduced by Isis Barra Costa, assistant professor of Spanish and Portuguese at Ohio State
French director Camus revives the ancient Greek tragedy of Orpheus and Eurydice against the lush pageantry and madcap genius of Rio de Janeiro’s Carnival. The film’s eye-popping color photography, extravagant costumes, and beautiful stars caused a sensation in the 1950s. And its iconic soundtrack, by Brazilian composer Antônio Carlos Jobim, kicked off a global bossa nova craze. Black Orpheus is one of only five films to win both the Palme d’Or at Cannes and the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. In Portuguese with English subtitles. (107 mins., DCP)
Om Shanti Om (Farah Khan, 2007, India) Thu July 18 | 7 PM 35mm print!
A massive hit in India on its release, Om Shanti Om hilariously skewers the conventions of Bollywood spectacle and sentimentality while serving them up skillfully. Beginning in the burgeoning Mumbai film scene of the 1970s, the film follows a buffoonish extra played by Indian superstar Shah Rukh Khan as he tries to make his way up in the industry and catch the eye of his actress crush (Deepika Padukone in the role that launched her into megastardom). A rare 35mm print was loaned from the Chicago Film Society for this screening. In Hindi with English subtitles. (162 mins. + intermission, 35mm; Heirloom Café will stay open through intermission)
Wild Zero, courtesy of Gaga Communications
Fangs (Mohammed Shebl, 1981, Egypt) with Wild Zero (Tetsuro Takeuchi, 1999, Japan) Fri July 19 | 7 PM Double Feature! Second film starts at 9 PM Fangs introduced by film critic George Wolf
Filled with disco songs, glam, and homoerotica, Fangs is one of the most singular (and hard to see) cult musicals around. The movie begins like a shot-for-shot remake of The Rocky Horror Picture Show that leads a couple to Count Dracula’s castle, but eventually heads off in its own feverish, satirical direction. In Arabic with English subtitles. (100 mins., DCP)
In Wild Zero, aliens want to destroy Earth with an army of zombies and only one thing can stop them: the Japanese band Guitar Wolf. Wild Zero‘s mix of punk, gore, and gender-bending romance is best experienced with an enthusiastic audience and best heard loud, so don’t miss this rare theatrical presentation of a usually unavailable cult classic! In Japanese with English subtitles. (98 mins., SD digital file)
A Woman is a Woman (Jean-Luc Godard, 1961, France) Sat July 20 | 7 PM
Godard’s warm, playful A Woman Is a Woman is both a tribute to and a parody of classic musicals. It features some of the most iconic superstars of the French New Wave, including Anna Karina, who plays an exotic dancer at the center of a complicated love triangle. With a score by Michel Legrand (best known for his work on series opener The Umbrellas of Cherbourg), the film earned the jury prize from the Berlin Film Festival for its “originality, youth, audacity, and impertinence.” In French with English subtitles. (84 mins., 35mm)
Destiny (Youssef Chahine, 1997, Egypt) Thu July 25 | 7 PM 35mm print!
This spectacular epic from a titan of Egyptian cinema chronicles the life of the influential medieval philosopher Ibn Rushd (known in the West as Averroes), an advocate for religious tolerance. Set in Córdoba in the 12th century where a secular and multicultural society flourished under Muslim rule, Destiny shows Averroes fighting for free speech, literacy, and rationalism, making him a target for powerful clerics. His followers use lively, sensuous singing and dancing as a rebuttal to the joyless austerity of the zealots. In Arabic with English subtitles. (135 mins., 35mm)
The Ship of Monsters (Rogelio A. González, 1960, Mexico) Thu Aug 1 | 7 PM
Singing cowboys! Wacky rubber-suited monsters! Robots! Blood-sucking space beauties! The rarely screened Mexican B-movie The Ship of Monsters has it all. After the last man on Venus dies, two voluptuous Venusian women, Beta and Gamma, set out on an intergalactic mission to collect men from around the cosmos. After assembling an assortment of bizarre, monstrous space men, the women’s ship crashes in Chihuahua, Mexico, leading one of the women to follow romance while the other sets her sights on conquering Earth. In Spanish with English subtitles. (81 mins., DCP)
City of Lost Souls (Rosa von Praunheim, 1983, Germany) Thu Aug 8 | 7 PM
This 1983 underground trans punk musical is a rarely seen pillar of no-budget queer cinema, made by one of Germany’s most transgressive filmmakers. City of Lost Souls captures the gender-defying American exiles who sought refuge in the 1980s Berlin club scene, featuring star turns from trans punk legend Jayne County and groundbreaking icon Angie Stardust. A major influence on Hedwig and the Angry Inch, City of Lost Souls is like a great cabaret hangout with the people kindred spirit John Waters would call “filth elders.” In English, German, and Spanish with English subtitles. (94 mins., digital video)
Latcho Drom (Tony Gatlif, 1993, France) Fri Aug 9 | 7 PM
Shot in widescreen CinemaScope, this stunning mix of documentary and travelogue is nearly impossible to see except for poor-quality bootlegs. Latcho Drom (safe journey) follows the thousand-year migration of the nomadic Romani people. Capturing a trek from Northern India to Spain—and featuring members of the local Romani communities at each stop—the film reflects both continuity and diversity from region to region. It highlights music and dance, and, with very few subtitles, a sense of unrepressed joy in the face of struggles. In Romani, Arabic, French, Hungarian, Slovak, Spanish, and Turkish with English subtitles. (103 mins., DCP)
Neptune Frost (Saul Williams and Anisia Uzeyman, 2021, Rwanda) Thu Aug 15 | 7 PM Introduced by Iyana Hill, exhibitions and education intern at Urban Arts Space
Set between poles of past and present, dreams and waking life, male and female, the Afrofuturist musical Neptune Frost is an invigorating and empowering experience—and a call to reclaim technology for political change. Throughout central Africa, mining of the tech-critical mineral coltan is largely unregulated. In the hilltops of Burundi, a group of escaped miners form a computer hacker collective and attempt to overthrow the regime that’s exploiting the region’s citizens and natural resources. But it takes the cosmic union of an intersex runaway and a coltan miner to ignite the revolution. In Kinyarwanda, Kirundi, Swahili, French, and English with English subtitles. (105 mins., DCP)
Copromotional support for Summer Musicals! World Tour is provided by Getaway Brewing, Seventh Son Brewing, and Antiques on High.
Film/Video Programs are made possible by the National Endowment for the Arts and Ohio Humanities.
Additional support is provided by the Rohauer Collection Foundation.
